Mmm. Asshole Fuckfacery. You know you love it. You know you want it. Each week I scour the news for the worst of the worst and present them to you for mocking. So, get your hottest pants on and let's get this party started. First up, some worst Senator alive Asshole Fuckfacry. Apparently, it’s... more

Mmm. Asshole Fuckfacery. You know you love it. You know you want it. Each week I scour the news for the worst of the worst and present them to you for mocking. So, get your hottest pants on and let's get this party started.

First up, some worst Senator alive Asshole Fuckfacry.

Apparently, it’s not difficult for Joe Lieberman to be the worst Democrat alive. It’s just something he excels at. This week, Joe came out against a “public health plan.” That’s just how he do. Being a Democrat, from a Democratic state, he’s decided not to go with the only thing that will bring down health care costs. He’s decided not to go with a public plan that 90% of Democrats want and 70% of Americans want. He against it!

Wait a minute. Slow the fuck down. This is very difficult and complex stuff and your rushing through it makes it even worse. So, you're saying that if we create a public option, the public is going to end up paying for it......fuck, I still don't get it. Start over. All I know is that right now we are throwing bags of money at private insurance companies – but that’s not “paying for it.” I don't get this "public" shit.

Oh noes! We must save the health care providers from losing out on their insane profits! Let's just ignore the fact that the public plan being addressed is comparable remuneration-wise to Medicare - which is better. Blah, blah, blah, facts are dumb.

Remember way back when Asshole Fuckface Lieberman was running for the Senate in 2006? After losing in the Democratic primary? And he decided to run from the left?

July 6, 2006 primary debate:

Sept. 21, 2006, during the general election campaign.

Liar! And an Asshole Fuckface!

Next up, some logic fail Asshole Fuckfacery.

Obviously, Obama is destroying our country. He’s a communist, he’s in love with Iran and he is black. It’s very upsetting if you sit back and look at the whole picture. As an American who loves America so much, he would like to blow America while singing “God Bless America,” I know there is only one way to save our country: Blow it up.



Finally someone is talking some sense up in this bitch. The only way to save America is to destroy it first. It’s like Danny Bonaduce. Same deal. No way we see another Oklahoma City bombing during Obama's presidency.

Next up, some global warming denier Asshole Fuckfacery.

Oh, the right wing has a new poster boy. He works for the EPA and he hates him some global warming. That’s why he put together an extensive scientific study to show the world it is not real. Global warming is a hoax!

Whatever. Dudes got EPA credentials. The right wing is in a tizzy because Carlin’s report is being buried! Buried, I tell you!

Don't hate the playa, hate the game! Why does the EPA want to shut down the truth?!?! Ask yourself that question. The EPA is part of the global warming religion and will do anything to hide the truth!

Um, yeah. That’s what science is. Jesus said that.

Thankfully, we have lawmakers who won’t let this horrible injustice go unanswered.

Senator Inhofe won’t let this stand! Why are you burying a scientific report you never asked for, that was created by an economist? You’ve got some answering to do, EPA. Next we’ll hear that you’re hiding a report from a janitor on the friendly nature of volcanoes. No matter how much you want this to go away, Obamepa, it ain’t! The truth must be told! You fuckers opened up a can of corruption!

It’s totally not embarrassing! Go Republicans!

Finally, some San Diego Asshole Fuckfacery.

Well, it was only a matter of time before Democrats started getting pepper sprayed. Who knew it would be beautiful San Diego that would kick it off? Democratic House candidate Francine Busby was holding a fundraiser last Friday night when things took a wrong turn.

Dude. It’s Friday. Someone should call the cops on you for being lame.

In reality, the party wasn’t loud at all.

Apparently dude had some other issues with the fundraiser.

I’m guessing the words “Dikes” and “Lesbos” were tossed around a bit by Mr. I Can’t Sleep Because Gay People Are Next Door. Thankfully, the awesome Deputy Marshall Abbott arrived to calm the situation down. This is a good time to ask if it’s a good sign when people call 911 to report a cop going apeshit.

That’s pretty much the usual response to a noise complaint, I guess. Abbot then called in the calvary. Multiple cops arrived, as did a helicopter and a dog unit – for a bunch of middle aged women. Hey, I wonder if this has anything to do with them being gay?

Stay classy, San Diego!

FearTheReaper is a writer, actor and stand up comedian. Check back each Tuesday and Friday for more from FearTheReaper You may also enjoy his blog, Stop All Monsters.

The Cove is a new documentary that exposes the horrific flipside of Flipper. Shot in the historic town of Taiji, Japan -- which is the birthplace of modern day whaling methods -- the film follows activist Ric O'Barry in his crusade to save the 2,000+ dolphins that are captured and/or slaughtered in... more

The Cove is a new documentary that exposes the horrific flipside of Flipper. Shot in the historic town of Taiji, Japan -- which is the birthplace of modern day whaling methods -- the film follows activist Ric O'Barry in his crusade to save the 2,000+ dolphins that are captured and/or slaughtered in a remote cove there each year.

Before Barry became an activist, he was an unwitting beneficiary of the dolphin trade. A one-time dolphin trainer (the mammals are closely related to whales), Barry first made a name for himself in the 1960s working on the Flipper TV series. "I feel somewhat responsible because it was the Flipper TV series that created this multi-billion dollar industry," says O'Barry, who older and wiser is appalled at the idea of dolphins in captivity in zoos and amusement parks around the globe. He now works for the Earth Island Institute, trying to save these wondrous creatures from this fate -- and worse.

His undercover work at the cove, exposing the atrocious practices of the Japanese fishing industry, caught the attention of former National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyos, who directed the movie about O'Barry's work at the cove. Using high-tech hidden surveillance equipment, the duo were able to capture the covert activities at the well-guarded cove, that had – up until now – been hidden from world view. Even the Japanese dolphin industry it seems is aware that it must remain concealed if it is to continue.

At the end of the film, O'Barry storms the International Whaling Commission with footage from the cove that convinces many to disengage from the corrupt organization which sets whaling quotas which are intertwined with the issue of tolerance for Japan’s dolphin trade. For O'Barry, giving interviews in support of the film is the next step towards exposing the practices of those in the dolphin trade who are happy to perpetrate unmentionable cruelty and ply mercury laden dolphin flesh that in truth is too toxic for human consumption.

Fred Toepl: What were you feelings as you saw the results of your efforts in the film?

Ric O'Barry: I recognized at that point that The Cove is indeed the light at the end of the tunnel. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and it's not an oncoming train. It's the sunshine. When this film gets out in Japan, before the Japanese people, you're going to see a lot more of that. I was thrown out of the room literally into the street but I was trying to bring attention to it. Everybody in that room is talking about 1000 whales in the southern ocean.

FT: While you were in the IWC room itself, a lot of people saw the video and you got some people to start changing.

ROB: Well, people in that room are not talking about the 23,000 whales that are being slaughtered in Japan. They're only talking about the 1000 in the southern ocean. That's what I was trying to do is bring attention to those 23,000. It's not even on the agenda. It's not discussed. So at that point, in fact today and tomorrow are the last two days of the International Whaling Commission meeting this year in Portugal and they're now talking about it as a result of that action. So that activism paid off big time and people are seeing The Cove movie at the IWC this year. So I think a lot of these countries in the Caribbean are going to drop their support for the Japanese government once they've seen this movie, once they've been exposed. The IWC's never been exposed before as the ship of fools that they really are. They're totally ineffective. It's a waste of money and a waste of time and nothing happens. That's been exposed for the first time.

FT: According to the film, Dominica was the first country to leave the IWC. That couldn't have been the only one as a result of your harrowing presentation at the IWC. Was it?

ROB: There will be others when this film is in theaters in those countries, in St. Lucia, in St. Vincent and all of these countries. I think they're going to be embarrassed and they're going to be exposed for basically prostituting themselves. You don't read about that. You don't see that. Nobody knows about that. Well, this film is going to break through all that and you're going to see all of these countries dropping their support for the Japanese government.

The movie is the activism. It is the activism and the more popular the movie becomes, the less popular harming dolphins and other whales is going to become. I must have done 25 interviews today and so many people have mentioned that they expect this to be nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary. If that happens, the Japanese government cannot deal with that kind of massive international PR nightmare, and it will shut down the cove finally, and may take whaling down with it.

FT: It also shows how activism can be effective. You might have some abstract idea of saving the dolphins, but this is a way to dramatically show results.

ROB: Well, when we were at Sundance, Sting came out of the audience and he became an activist. He said, "What can I do to help?" He'll be going back to Japan with me and he can get the media attention that I can't there. Also, a few days ago, I was at the film festival in Nantucket. By the way, I won the two top awards there as well. But Ben Stiller jumped out of the audience and said, "What can I do to help?" I said, "Come with me to Japan because you can get the media attention that I can't get." He's coming to Japan. So these people have become activists and I think we're going to see a lot more of that.

FT: Were you working full time in this cove area?

ROB: Well, I spend most of September through March there and I bring CNN, the BBC, anyone who will come. The film company was just one of many people I bring there. They came and they may never come back again. They'll move on to another film but I will go back there soon and that's where I spend my time and try to figure out what to do next. I don't really know what I'm doing or what I'm going to do next but I know that showing up is the most important. That's the first step. Show up and sometimes what you have to do is made known to you a few minutes before you do it. That's how I met these people, Louie Psihoyos who's made this film. He called and said, "Can I follow you around with my camera?" I said sure. He was there a few days later. So yeah, what I have to do is just go there and be there. Now it's gotten so dangerous I have to wear costumes.

FT: Like your medical masks?

ROB: Yeah, well, I've got wigs and I've got dresses and helmets to look like fisherman. I've got a lot of different disguises.

FT: How do you afford to commit yourself to this work?

ROB: Well, I work for Earth Island Institute in Berkeley, California, although I don't have to go to the office. I spend my time out -- "on the dolphin trail" they call it. So they pay me a salary. It's a full time job. People can get this information and take action by going to our website which is SaveJapanDolphins.org. People can actually do something at that website.

FT: Where else are problem areas besides this cove?

ROB: Well, Okinawa, Iki Island, but we want to stay focused on this one cove because when it does shut down, it will shut down, it will shut down for a reason. What is the reason? The reason is the product is contaminated. It's poison. Once that's established, you could take that into Okinawa and to Iki Island and to the Solomon Islands where there is a dolphin slaughter and to the Faroe Islands where there's a dolphin slaughter. I've been going there, and I'll be going back there again, so that work goes on, even though the film company will move on to another subject.

FT: What would you like to do after The Cove comes out?

ROB: Go back to Japan and finish the job. That's what I will do.

FT: When this inevitably happens, do you retire?

ROB: No. I mean, I'm going to be 70 my next birthday so I jumped off the cliff a long time ago. There's no turning back now. I might as well keep going until the trip is over. There's a lot of work to do. There's a lifetime of work there.

FT: Is there any reasonable argument for keeping captive dolphins for educational purposes for children?

ROB: No. No. No. It's very black and white for me. Captivity for dolphins is wrong. It's a question of ethics, not of science. The educational line is bogus. The proof of that is Japan. Japan has 50 dolphinariums, 50 places you can swim with them and see them. If you talk to them or talk to Sea World or Marineland or Seaquarium and say, "Why are you displaying dolphins?" They will tell you education and research. We only protect what we know. It sounds logical that we need to display dolphins so people can become sensitized and then they'll protect them. But you only have to look at Japan to see that that's a fallacy. 50 dolphin areas in Japan translates into hundreds and millions of people [that] have been educated. Yet when I'm in Taiji, I can't find one person who has been to these dolphinariums themselves. In fact, it is the captures that are going on in Taiji that are the economic underpinning of the dolphin slaughter. They get up to $148,000 for each [live] dolphin. At least that's what the ones that were sold to the Dominican Republic Ocean World, were sold for. So they're rewarding the fisherman for their bad behavior.

FT: You need only see the footage to see it's wrong.

ROB: Yeah, well that industry, that's a $2 billion a year profit industry in the U.S. alone. They don't spend one penny of that. $2 billion is a lot of money. They get that every 12 months. You'd think they would spend a few dollars to try and shut down the largest slaughter of dolphins in the world but they don't. They don't show up except to capture them and to collect dolphins for their swim programs.

FT: Does this go for all species though? Should we not keep any animal in captivity?

ROB: Well, look, I don't sit at the right hand side of God and have the answers to all these questions. I only know the dolphins. If you go to the L.A. Zoo and take a look at the snake exhibit, even a cold-blooded snake with a small brain is given more consideration than any dolphin in captivity. If you look at the dolphin, they're sound organic. That's their primary sense. Our primary sense is light. We're visually oriented, their primary sense is sonar, sound. They're in a concrete box…so captivity is more stressful for dolphins than it is for any other animal in the zoo. That's why the mortality rate is so high. So I don't think it has any value. It's not a form of positive education. It's a form of negative education, bad education.

FT: In the press you've done, have you had any antagonists trying to refute your claims?

ROB: Not yet but I think the captive industry will, when the movie comes out. Every action has a reaction and they're going to react to this because this movie's so powerful that when people see it, they're going to think twice before they buy a ticket. I'm telling people at that website I just gave you, we're asking the public to not buy a ticket. That's the solution to the problem. It's based on supply and demand like any other industry. If I'm wearing ivory, I'm the reason the elephant is becoming extinct, not the guy in the jungle with the shotgun. It's me, the consumer. So it is true with this multi-billion dollar dolphin captivity industry. The solution is don't buy a ticket.

I had a guy here a few minutes ago ask me, "Well, how about the kids in the inner city? They would never see a dolphin if we didn't have it in these places." That's true but these very same children are never going to see a snow leopard. So what do we do, go to the Himalayas and drag a snow leopard into the room for them?

FT: The film is so harrowing, is there a less graphic way to educate?

ROB: Well, I don't know. The real challenge was to make this entertaining and apparently the filmmakers were successful because it has received a standing ovation in every screening I've been to, including Sundance. People are laughing, they're crying, they're cheering and there's a standing ovation at the end and they say, "What can I do to help?" So apparently it is entertaining or they would have walked out. It's winning all the audience awards so apparently it is entertaining.

Pigface is a tough band to pin down. With a constantly-shifting lineup that reads like a who's-who of industrial and hard rock, it's always a surprise to see who'll show up to play on each new album, or even each night of a tour. The one constant, the man at the center of the band, is drummer/producer/impresario... more

Pigface is a tough band to pin down. With a constantly-shifting lineup that reads like a who's-who of industrial and hard rock, it's always a surprise to see who'll show up to play on each new album, or even each night of a tour. The one constant, the man at the center of the band, is drummer/producer/impresario Martin Atkins.

Martin's credentials as a drummer are impressive: he's played with Public Image, Ltd., Ministry, and Killing Joke. He plays drums in Pigface, but he also produces, which involves managing musical contributions from around the world. The new Pigface record, 6, features members of KMFDM, Atari Teenage Riot, Apollo 440 and Zeromancer, among others.

You may know Martin as Suicide Girls' Tour:Smart columnist, offering advice and stories to bands who are looking to hit the road successfully. He also teaches classes on touring and music marketing at Columbia College in Chicago, and he's currently starting up his own hands-on school, Revolution Number Three, where students learn about the music business by working in the music business.

Martin is clearly excited about the new album and the new school, but, considering that he literally wrote the book on touring (it's called Tour:Smart), it shouldn't come as a surprise that he seems most charged up about going on tour. As he explained to Suicide Girls, absolutely anything can happen at a Pigface show. Lineups and stage sets that change every night might not make journalists or sound engineers happy, but Martin Atkins is loving every minute of it.

Jay Hathaway: Since Pigface has always been a collaborative thing, and you've brought in different people for every album, what stays the same at the center of the band? Other than you playing drums, I mean.

Martin Atkins: Well, it began as just an experiment. It began halfway through the 1991 Ministry "In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up" tour, also known as "The Cage" tour. I was looking around the stage, and there was myself, Bill Rieflin (who now plays drums with R.E.M.), Ogre from Skinny Puppy, Chris Connelly from the Revolting Cocks, KMFDM were opening, and all these people would kind of wander on stage. I couldn't help wonder what would happen if we made an album, instead of just doing Ministry songs. So the day after the tour finished, we went in the studio with Steve Albini and recorded the first album. So, ever since then, it's just been whoever's around. I think Trent Reznor came in the studio for the first album. Going out on tour is more of the same cohesive lineup, fueled by whoever else was around, whoever's touring, whose paths crossed. The idea is just that anything can happen with anybody. At time it's been a raging experiment. At times it's been like rehab for people -- either socially, chemically, or whatever. It's become understood as an anything-can-happen place.

JH: From a production standpoint, does that make it complicated to record the album?

MA: It makes parts of it easier. This album began with some ideas. "The Good, The Bad and the Drugly" has been around for four or five years. We went on tour with Hanin [Elias] from Atari Teenage Riot, the guys from Sheep on Drugs, Charles Levi from Thrill Kill on bass, Curse Mackey singing, and it was the same kind of thing as we did in '91. We were messing around with some ideas during the tour, and went straight into the studio before everybody left. Once people started to realize I was working on a new album, somebody would say, "Oh, here's an idea, here's a riff." It's not a normal process of recording an album. Pigface has never been normal.

JH: Does that process make it easier to make the same tough calls as a producer that you make on other people's albums, instead of maybe being a bit precious because this is your own band?

MA: It is difficult...I think one thing I started to get a handle on with this Pigface album was trying to be as brutal with my own music as I am with everybody else's.

JH: Who was the most surprising contributor to the new album?

MA: The surprises come in many ways. One of the things I enjoyed the most was having Xi Chen – he's the singer in a band called Snapline from Beijing, China – he sang a version of "6.6.7.11" which is just cool as hell. There's also a track which isn't on the album either, called "Radio China." That's me and a bunch of Chinese musicians in the studio in Beijing. We all watched a Pigface video, and then made that song. It kind of got rolled into my China Dub [Soundsystem] album, and maybe I thought it was just too crazy to involve 30 Chinese people in Pigface. The thing I like about Pigface is that Pigface has an identity – I'm not always sure what it is – but the people involved in it retain their identity in the larger picture. It's obviously the guys from Zeromancer working on the "Mercenary" track. I like that about it.

JH: It's not just throwing all of this music into a blender until you can't tell who did what. I think that's really cool.

MA: Well, thank you! It's weird, when Pigface started, concert promoters were really freaked out. "Well, who's going to be there?" "Well, we don't know." The lack of knowing was read by concert promoters and some journalists as not being able to deliver something meaningful. But the lack of knowing meant we were delivering something cool and exciting, we just didn't know the specifics of it. I've grown more and more comfortable with that as time goes by.

JH: But, as the guy who's always there, do you get more worn out than everyone else when you're playing a show every night for a month?

MA: Just from a drumming point of view, of course. I'm shagged! But when people show up and just do stuff, that's what energizes me. When Danny from Tool came out for 10 days, it wasn't until I arrived in Denver that I counted the number of people and the number of bunks and went, "Oh, fuck! There isn't a bunk for Danny." So I ended up sleeping on the floor of the bus, which was much more brutal than any show I've ever performed. It was like being punched in the kidneys for 12 hours! But that absolutely doesn't diminish the enjoyment I had of playing drums on that tour with him. Sometimes I jump off stage, and just hand somebody my drumsticks – especially if there's two or three or four people playing drums – and just run to the back and talk to the sound guy, and watch it. It's pretty wild to watch your own band from the back of the room. I don't know many people who've been able to do that. It's an energizing and fueling experience, even when it's tiring.

JH: Kanye West recently said that his greatest pain in life is that he'll never get to see himself perform live, so it must be pretty amazing to be able to watch your own band.

MA: [laughs] What Kanye West said sounds just really conceited! I hope what I said didn't sound like that. I haven't seen myself perform, because when I'm at the back of the room, I'm not onstage. But I get to see my bandmates and go "Holy fuck! That light-up crucifix and the thing that we bought from the truck stop and 19 people on stage, hanging from the bars that we built over the drum kit ... this is fucking unbelievable!"

JH: So, I read somewhere that you were planning to release the album on 8-track. Did you do that?

MA: Oh yeah! It's out on 8-track. It came out on 8-track before the CD version. I'm teaching marketing at Columbia in Chicago, and at my own school in Chicago, and one of the things I tell my students, ever since I was involved with Metal Box for Public Image, Ltd., is that packaging is really important. I just decided I wanted to do something weird and difficult with the album. There's only 100 copies available on 8-track, and they're $100 a piece. But we give people a $50 coupon if they send us a movie of themselves playing the album in granddad's car that they broke into, or some crazy-ass 8-track machine inside a football helmet, you know. That's what I'm trying to collect: some crazy-ass movies of people listening to 8-track tapes. I'm not trying to collect money.

JH: That's awesome. Especially considering that if you're teaching college students, they might not even be old enough to know what an 8-track is.

MA: It's really weird, you know. I told the students that you have to go the extra mile and really think about this stuff, more than just "Here's a free download and here's a CD." When you go the extra mile, strange things will happen. I can't tell you what they'll be. With Metal Box, a bunch of punks got into a fight, and there was a ton of press about it, because they were making a hash brownie in the metal box, and fighting over the piece in the middle that had the PiL logo on the brownie. You can't buy publicity like that! So I bought a bunch of used 8-tracks to record over, and this guy emailed me. He said, "I saw you just bought that 200 8-track lot on eBay, and there's a cartridge in that lot that I've been looking for since 1982. It's something I used to listen to with my parents. I'll pay you 20 dollars just for the track listing!" And it turned out he was in Chicago, not too far from my office, so I said, "Come down to my office and tell your story, let me film you, and I'll give it to you for free." This guy was shaking. He didn't think he would hold this cartridge in his hands ever again. I feel pretty good about that. I feel pretty good about doing something that's not like, "Oh, here's somebody else releasing an album on 8-track cartridge!" There aren't too many things you can do these days that other people haven't already done 15 times over.

JH: So, on the subject of teaching, is there a conflict between running a record label and teaching a class on the music industry where you tell students that they don't need a label?

MA: I don't think it's a conflict at all, because I've had my label for 20 years in September, and it's not just a record label. It's a recording studio, it's 150 t-shirt designs, a music publishing company, it's a bunch of things. In that same building, we do my books, my art gallery shows, and now my lecturing events. And now it's turning into a school. So, it doesn't feel like a conflict at all. I signed some Chinese bands recently, and I'm producing them and releasing them, but I'm not really doing that in the States anymore. I'll tell anybody you don't need a label, you can absolutely do it yourself, and I'm proof of that. I didn't need a label 20 years ago when I started one. I had 70 dollars.

JH: So, what makes you want to teach people about the music business, instead of letting them figure everything out the hard way, like you had to when you started out?

MA: I started teaching by accident, six years ago. I went into Columbia College in Chicago because they're across from our offices, and I was just intent on bringing 10 interns back to our offices to help with the tour. I just wanted some free labor. So I did a presentation to the faculty, and they said, "Fantastic! When can you start?" It turned out they wanted me to teach. It seemed sort of punk rock of me to say "Yeah, fuck, I'll teach!" I'd been doing spoken word performances, I'm happy in front of an audience. I just started teaching, and...I don't know, I feel like I can communicate some difficult things to students. I can find a way in to turn the lights on in many different ways. I really got into it. And then I realized there wasn't really a book about touring. The textbook that Columbia was using was written in 1962. It was appalling. So I wrote Tour:Smart, and because of Tour:Smart, I've been all over the world, lecturing. I just really like doing it.

On another angle, it's just horrible to see so many bands making the same mistakes that other bands have made years ago. That's one of the reasons I do lectures, and if asked by a hard-up band that needs help and information, I'll always give them a copy of my book. If someone doesn't have the money to pay for it, then they need the book even more than they think they need it. It just seems crazy to me that with a world that's so developed in so many areas, we're on version 6.7 of Eye Surgery or Recording Studio Techniques or whatever, but so many aspects of the music business are still Music Business 1.0.

JH: What have you learned from your students since you started teaching?

MA: Some of my classes are like a crazy game of ping pong. We're all just batting these ideas around and seeing where they go. I think that since I've started teaching, I've learned more from myself, initially, because to stand in front of students and talk about the lessons I've learned – actually, some of the lessons I hadn't learned, where I kept making the same mistakes. I was in a lecture about agents, and I'm making all these points and showing all these slides and I said, "Oh, excuse me a minute." I took a five minute break, and fired my agent. So, some of these lessons have really crystallized for me.

JH: So, when you go on tour, are you going to be looking out for things you might want to talk about in class?

MA: Yeah, it's always a circular thing. Things that are happening in our businesses change the things that I teach. Something will happen in my office, and I'll take that into class, but then something will happen in class which turns into something like the Tour:Smart Survival Guide to South by Southwest. Everything changes everything. I think the coolest thing we're doing right now is turning my building into a school [Revolution Number Three], and opening all of our businesses into a learning environment. People can come in and run the music publishing company, or develop a new drum library. That's where all this has led, and the problem with traditional education is that things take so long to get through the curriculum committees and get approved as a class. By the time that happens, it's almost redundant, or a joke. We're going to solve that problem by having the class be the real world, and the real world be the class.

JH: I feel like you could almost run a school like Pigface, where the faculty is just whoever is around and knows something about the topic ...

MA: If you talk to people who've been on the crew of Pigface, it's almost become like a code word, like, "If you've been on tour with Pigface, you can do anything." Because people will! One night it's seven drummers, the next night I've got an inflatable life raft from the Army/Navy surplus store and I'm crowd-surfing on the audience! Then we've got bagpipes and trumpets, and there's six people singing and three bass players, and we've constructed an 8-foot high light-up cross. It's a baptism of fire. It's a sound man's nightmare, but you do that, and you're ready for anything. That's what the school's going to be. It's a Pigface, punk rock, DIY attitude that's enabled the school to happen. When I started Invisible Records, I got to a point where I didn't know I could do a really good job running a record label, but I knew I couldn't fuck things up any more than so-called major labels and major independent labels had done on my behalf. And that was very liberating. I find myself at exactly the same place now. I don't know that I can run an amazing school, but I know that I can't fuck things up and deliver half-assed out-of-date not-very-useful classes to people who aren't gonna get jobs. I'm not going to do that. It's definitely a Pigface kind of attitude.


Pigface 6 is out now on Full Effects Records. Tour:Smart is available from Amazon.com. For more info go to the Tour:Smart and Revolution Number Three websites.

It’s really quite interesting to watch the Democrats throw it all away. This time, they seem to think blowing the chance at decent health care reform will aid them in future elections. Or perhaps they have taken so much money from the health care industry that they don’t give a shit. Either... more

It’s really quite interesting to watch the Democrats throw it all away. This time, they seem to think blowing the chance at decent health care reform will aid them in future elections. Or perhaps they have taken so much money from the health care industry that they don’t give a shit. Either way, it doesn’t matter. Fixing health care is the biggest problem facing our country. If we don’t do something drastic, it will completely destroy our economy in the years to come. As it is, we’re in bad shape. Democrats, specifically Senate Democrats, have decided to help the poor insurance industry out as much as possible. Es no bueno.

Most of the debate is over the dreaded “public option.” Oh, dear no. We can’t have a public option. That’s socialized medicine! Americans must be able to choose! And by that I mean they can’t choose a public option! They have to be able to choose between private monopolies! This is fucking America! We demand to be fucked over by private companies as much as possible!

And make no mistake about it; those against the “public option” want to continue with monopolies.

So, that's what the "free market" kids are fighting for. Monopolies. Yay!

A public option would guarantee the possibility of lower cost, reliable coverage. It will bring cost control by reforming how we pay for medical care. It will create competition between private insurers that simply does not exist today. It will also force private insurers to perform better, something they are not doing today.

To those who say the public option would drive the private companies out of business; I thought everything government did sucked? Is government bad or highly efficient? Please stick to one talking point, no matter the subject. Secondly, the private insurance companies have had their chance and to say they fucked it up would be an understatement. They deserve no protection. I have no interest in keeping pedophiles in business, either. Their time has come and gone. They could have kept costs lower, kept people from dying, insured anyone with preconditions, but they decided to go for the biggest profits possible and now they are on the deserving end of what’s coming. They only compete to insure the well and reject the sick. Then they employ adjusters to get the company out of paying for health care services when the well become sick. Welcome to the world of failure. They made their bed, now they have to lie in it.

If any of you loud mouthed, utopian, not living in the real world Libertarians bring up regulation, feel free to explain the exact regulation that makes health care so expensive. If you can’t detail these so called regulations, shut your face and stick your broad stroke arguments up your ass. Your simplicity has grown tiresome. This current debate is for adults and what you want will never be, so stay out of it or act like an adult and accept that what you want ain’t going to happen.

As far as the public plan, Democrats are right now working on a way to water it down until it is completely ineffective. Senator Jay Rockefeller, who is a son of a bitch because of his FISA legislation, has come up with a good public health care plan. His plan would partner a public plan with Medicare for more bargaining power and access to provider networks. According the non-partisan Lewin Group and the Commonwealth Foundation, Rockefeller’s plan would drop premiums 20 to 30 percent. Can’t have that, now can we?

Rockefeller’s plan would force private insurance companies to be more honest. They would have to cut their bullshit administrative costs and fire quite a few of those adjusters whose job is to find ways to not pay for care. Right now, you have no choice. You can choose between one horrible private insurance company or another. There really isn’t much difference. The idea is to force them to become insurers instead of profiteers.

Other Democrats are working on plans that would do almost nothing. Senator Chuck Schumer has a “level playing field” public plan that won’t save much at all. It will just create a plan that will allow private companies to dump old, sick and high-risk patients onto the public plan. This is considered a compromise. It will be awesome because by doing it halfway, they will create exactly what the right wing claims will happen. It will be a terribly ineffective, expensive plan. It would not use low rates that Medicare sets or use taxpayer subsidies. It wouldn’t force its way into networks. It would just be like any other insurer, except for the fact that it would be a dumping ground for private insurers to unload their expensive patients. It’s one of those genius “Democrats compromise and create a pile of shit plans.”

Finally, there’s Ben Nelson’s “Trigger Plan.” You know it’s good because Nelson has taken millions and millions of dollars from insurance companies. The Trigger Plan would be like a big, invisible, scary fist looming over the insurance industry. If the private market didn’t offer cost control or enough options, the public plan would come into existence - but it would be at the state level. It’s a regional Trigger. Some states might have a public plan and others would not. It’s basically set up as a way for private companies to game the system. Ben Nelson doesn’t seem to realize the trigger should have been pulled 8 years ago. If he wants to set the threshold where costs are now, it’s a big lose. Go Blue Dogs!

Those are the public plan options. Now which one do you think Democrats in the Senate will choose? I’d bet big money on the “Level playing field” plan because it doesn’t actually threaten the private insurance market. It actually helps them in their quest to be the biggest douche bags on Earth.

Prepare for failure.

FearTheReaper is a writer, actor and stand up comedian. Check back each Tuesday and Friday for more from FearTheReaper You may also enjoy his blog, Stop All Monsters.

(image) Greetings from Trinec Czech Republic! I'm in my room at the Hotel Steel, which on the outside looks like a war-torn '70s modern communist building but on the inside has clean functional rooms and great espresso. I've been in Europe since May 31, all over the place. I spent the... more

Greetings from Trinec Czech Republic! I'm in my room at the Hotel Steel, which on the outside looks like a war-torn '70s modern communist building but on the inside has clean functional rooms and great espresso.

I've been in Europe since May 31, all over the place. I spent the first two weeks doing promotion for the new Anthrax record Worship Music (coming in October through Megaforce/RED/Sony....PLUG). Basically traveling from city to city doing interviews and photo shoots.12 hours a day, sometimes 14-16 hour days. Cry for me Suicide Girls!

London, Paris, Madrid, Milan, Helsinki, Stockholm and Oslo. It was a brutal schedule but the reaction to the new songs has been amazing!!!! I have an iPod with the new mixes on it and the writers get to hear them right before they sit down to talk to me. This is the way it's done in the world of stealing music my friends. No more advance CD's.

The instant reactions are great. It really makes me excited for all of you to hear it!!! It really feels like the press/media is hearing the songs the same way I hear them. They can hear all the energy and time and blood and sweat and hard work that we put into this record. The two years we spent writing and then the six months we spent recording were some of the toughest and best times I have ever had in Anthrax and listening back to the finished songs now I can say it was well worth it.

This new record is the best representation of our career that I could ever imagine and our new singer Dan Nelson sounds like he's been with us forever. We're playing the fuck out of these songs and to quote my buddy Patton Oswalt; "Playing them like we're going to jail tomorrow."

Anyway, wait until you hear this record. Worship Music is a fucking great metal record and it will be out on October 12.

After the two weeks of promo we started our summer tour in Estonia. It was our first time in Tallinn and we had a blast!! Found a killer bar called Hell Hunt and we drank a hellish amount of beer! Tried all the local Estonian brews and found them to my liking. My friend Renee offered to take me to a poker room but I was too drunk and thought it would be a bad idea to be playing with hardcore Estonians and Russians drunk.

The show in Estonia was great (even though it was raining really hard) and the new songs went over great. We've been playing three new ones; "Fight'em 'Til You Can't," "New Noise," and "Earth On Hell," and the reactions everywhere have been thrash-fucking-tastic.

We played the Metal Hammer Awards in London and that was a blast as well. Since then we've been in Paris, Luxembourg, Clisson France for Hellfest (which was amazing, best show of the tour so far), Bilbao Spain, Bologna Italy, Lucerne Switzerland (another gem), Zagreb Croatia and now Trinec, a sunny little town, not so much grim as it is plain, right near the Polish border. Somehow amongst all of that I've been eating OK as well.
Meal of the tour was at the Trattoria Marano outside of Bologna. All home-made, all delicious. The mascarpone dessert was the best thing I've ever had for dessert. I'd still be eating and drinking there if it wasn't for this damn tour schedule!

Oh, another highlight...at the Hellfest in France after our show I got to watch Heaven & Hell from the side of the stage and they were incredible. Ronnie Dio is metal perfection. He really is the best singer ever. And, getting to stand so close to Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler is so surreal. I know these guys and have had conversations with them and I know they are just normal guys but they INVENTED HEAVY METAL. It's like standing next to Gods.

That's it for now. More food and booze next time and more tour reports.

And don't forget to WORSHIP MUSIC!!!

Cheers,
Scott

PS RIP MJ. Besides the musical, dance and technical genius of the man, and the influence he's had on four decades of artists, Michael loved Zombies.
Cheers,
Scott

PSS Here's a cool blog from Andy Buchanan, pro photographer and Kiss lover. He's been out here with us.

Image: Hellfest in France. 40,000 maniacs make me fly. Photo by Andy Buchanan.



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Scott Ian is SuicideGirls' monthly Food Coma columnist. Click HERE for more of his musing on sustenance and libations. He plays guitar for revolutionary metal band Anthrax and also for Pearl.